Hey guys, I wasn't sure where to put this topic really. I didn't think it would be appropriate for Civ Av but at the same time it IS aviation related so maybe here isn't so great either. Site related seemed to be more for bugs, suggestions, questions, etc.

Anyway, how did you hear about a.net and become a member? For me, I think I was looking up an a/c registration (Delta 767) one day and couldn't figure out if it was painted in the Ron Allen colors still or if it made it to the Wavy Gravy. I did a Google search on the N registration and there was a.net in the search results. From that day I was hooked and about 3 months later, after lurking, I became a member.

I was looking at pictures of the old Greater PIT Terminal. I saved a copy of an old photo of a USAir 727 taken in 1983 and used it temporarily as a desktop background for my computer. I noticed the website, airliners.net, in the lower right hand corner, so I thought I'd check out the site. Well, the computer crashed shortly afterwards, but I have frequented Airliners.net quite frequently from that point in 2004 until early in 2006 when I finally became a member. I had no idea what to use for a username. I figured that since I'm a Steelers fan and having been born and raised in Pittsburgh, I'd use something pertaining to that, and I'd use my birth year which is 1983. Low and behold, the username of Steeler83 was born that day.

If I had a second shot at a username, I'd probably use PITDC930, USPIT727, or PIT732lover. Those are my 3 favorite aircraft types and two of them are extinct, if you will. The sound of those vintage PW engines just send chills up and down my spine. Now, I look for videos of those planes taxiing on youtube...

Do not bring stranger girt into your room. The stranger girt is dangerous, it will hurt your life.

When I was younger, I used to love to search for aircraft photos. I searched for months at a time looking for aircraft photos, and one day when I googled "airplane pictures", I found ANet. Been hooked since, I was literally suck on this site for a month before I realized I could become a member. Funny thing is that I barely look at pictures anymore. I mostly just prowl Non-Av

I was planning a visit to central Europe and while looking for information about and photos of Wien Schwechat (VIE) I saw some links. VIE was the airport through which I entered and left Europe. Later I visited the site on a regular basis before joining.

When I moved to YVR, a colleague forwarded me a link to a.net with a photo of some plane we were talking about at YVR, which was then a new and exciting airport for me. I haved visited a.net every say since when in access of the internet and lurked for 10 months before signing up.

I don't remember the exact details of when I found it, but I was also looking for pictures. Then I hit this Holy Grail. After seeing lots of pictures I decided to checkout what the "Forums" link was all about and then you just get sucked in the topics.

Gone were the days of endless Google searches for aircraft pictures. Good riddance.

In about 2003 I was trying to find out about the history of a specific a/c I was on, the first one of Virgin Atlantic "Virgin Flyer" and came across the website looking for pictures of it (was retired/broken up in the UK).

I was referred to this site by someone on the planebusiness.com message boards when it used to be a free site. This was just before planebusiness.com shut down the message boards and the website became subscription only.

I can't remember, to be honest. I'd been on a.net for several months before I bit the bullet and paid the $25 to register, but what probably happened is that I was looking for airliner pictures (because at that time I hadn't flown in over three years and I was getting withdrawal symptoms ), and stumbled upon a.net somehow.

My uncle who isn't into planes directed me to this site after seeing it on some other website he was looking at showing something like the top 10 websites for something (airline pictures maybe?).. This was back in 2002 so I can't remember that much about him telling me..

As a Sophomore or so in college I had another friend who was an aviation geek and we discovered this site. AT that time the database was so small that I could look at all of the photos and read all the posts.

It was at least as far back as 1997, and I can't even remember how I found the site? I probably found it while doing some kind of aviation related search on some search engine like Webcrawler or Lycos?

These days, no matter how hard I try, I can rarely get my photos accepted in the data base! I've almost given up! But back then, it was easy. And frankly, a lot of mine back then really sucked! I just recently uploaded one, and got a message telling me it was the top viewed photo for that 24 hours. Then I got another message at the same time welcoming me as a new photographer! I thought that was odd, because I use to have a couple dozen in the data base? So I went back and checked if my old photos from about 1998 were still there, and they were. Yet, at the same time, if you do a photographer search, it only comes up with that one recently uploaded photo in the database for me! Even though several dozen of my 13 year old photo's are still there.

Quoting futurepilot16 (Reply 3):When I was younger, I used to love to search for aircraft photos. I searched for months at a time looking for aircraft photos, and one day when I googled "airplane pictures", I found ANet. Been hooked since, I was literally suck on this site for a month before I realized I could become a member. Funny thing is that I barely look at pictures anymore. I mostly just prowl Non-Av

This is EXACTLY the way I found it. Back when I was 9 or 10, being fascinated with airplanes, I Googled "airplane pictures" and landed here. Browsed it daily since.

I was doing a Google Image search for either a DC-8 or 747SP and it brought me to A.net. I was on here for quite awhile before I realized there were forums and all kinds of good stuff other than just photos. I've been visiting frequently for a long time now. If you like airplanes in any capacity, this site is a tremendous resource!

I'm sure I was just googling pictures of planes when I was about 12 or so. The annoying thing is, I was visiting way before it became a paid website and only discovered the forums about a month or so after it became paid.

I signed up when I was around 14 or so and I've been on here ever since.

While exiting a store that's directly under the landing path for BHM, I saw a strange aircraft fly quite close overhead: It had high-mounted wings, a T-tail, and four wing-mounted jet engines, yet it was rather small... like a C-17 that had accidentally been washed in hot water and repainted in civilian colors. After asking my few aircraft-knowledgeable friends what it might have been and receiving replies that ranged from shrugged shoulders to outright accusations that I had imagined such an odd aircraft, I Googled "aircraft descriptions" and wound up here in the Aircraft Data section.

It turned out that the aircraft I had seen was a British Aerospace Avro RJ-85 flying for Northwest Jet Airlink.

Back in 1998, when I first got a computer, I found an aviation chat room. I asked if anybody could tell me where I could find a good picture of an Eastern DC-7B, and somebody told me to go to airliners.net. I've been a member ever since.

In 2001 ...I received a request from a customer to activate HF on 3 EX USAIR MD-80's. Activating the wiring and systems is the easy part ... if the aircraft has the HF antenna installed in the tail cone. MD-80's that have a HF antenna rod installed in the tail cone have a small flush "disk" with fasterners around it visible on the right side of the tail cone.

I searched the web to try to find a picture of a MD80 with it installed .... and the rest is history. I still often use Anet to look up photos of aircraft by serial number to check for various antennas or other mods that had been done to them.

I first discovered it when I search for pictures of my first airplane that I rode almost 12 years ago. This site quickly became my favorite and haven't left since. It was a while before I realized I could become a member and actually talk about my curiosities, which sucked me into this site even further

LETS GO MOUNTAINEERS!

25 richm
: Like many others, I was searching for photos of aircraft that I had flown on. I decided to join a few years later.

26 MasterBean
: I'm pretty sure it was this photo, or maybe a similar one. http://www.airliners.net/photo/Air-F...d=455da50f8d88cba041cd126e4e97f46d

27 FlyASAGuy2005
: As with me. I would browse for ours looking at a/c interiors as it was my favorite back then. Somehow I got into the forums then lurked for a bit. On